Editorial | Despite stumbles, give healthcare reform time

President Barack Obama speaking about problems with the health care law.

It now is painfully clear that President Barack Obama and his administration stumbled badly in recent weeks as the Affordable Health Care Act has unfolded.

First came the failed launch of the federal website where people were supposed to be able to shop for health coverage, starting Oct. 1.

That was quickly followed by the disturbing news that despite President Obama's claim "If you like your insurance, you can keep it," a small percentage of Americans who buy individual policies on the open market are getting cancellation letters - in most cases because the bare-bones plans don't meet basic coverage standards of the new health care law.

The president has apologized for the website failures and for misleading some Americans about their individual plans under the law.

Now he must make the system work for the sake of a nation where one of its greatest shames is that more than 40 million people have no health insurance - and most stood little chance of getting it before the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, went into effect.

Republican critics, chief among them Kentucky's senior Sen. Mitch McConnell, have pounced joyfully on the stumbles as evidence the health law is the "train wreck" they proclaimed it would be.

Further, Mr. McConnell and many in the GOP love to claim the United States already has the "best health care in the world."

That may be true for those who can afford it, including Mr. McConnell, whose net worth is estimated in the millions and who has enjoyed access to excellent, government-sponsored health coverage during his five terms in the U.S. Senate.

But for millions of Americans, lack of access to care has been a source of fear, financial ruin and even death. That includes some 640,000 people in Mr. McConnell's home state of Kentucky, many impoverished or out of work in a state with some of the nation's highest rates of death and disease.

People across the country have suffered because they could not afford health coverage or in many cases, were denied it because of pre-existing health conditions, no matter how minor. Others were canceled when they developed a costly illness, such as cancer, forcing them into bankruptcy or to go without care and medication easily available to their better-insured brethren.

All that changes under the health law if Americans are willing to give health reform a chance and if the Obama administration can follow through on its implementation.

Now millions of Americans will be able to find coverage they can afford, helped out by generous federal subsidies for those with lower incomes. And those who are getting cancellation notices for individual plans will find in most cases, they can get better, cheaper coverage under the new law, according to health experts.

Officials panicked by the recent problems, including some Democrats in Congress fearing the next election, need to chill, step back and give the law a chance to work.

And it can work as Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and governors from Washington state and Connecticut pointed out Sunday in an opinion piece in The Washington Post (and found on the C-J website today).

They are among 14 states that elected to operate their own health care exchanges, and as Gov. Beshear has repeatedly pointed out, in Kentucky it is "going gangbusters," signing up people for health coverage at a rate of 1,000 a day.

The governors of the three states said the reason Affordable Care is working in their states is simple: People want it to.

Medicare, the extremely popular and highly efficient health plan for older Americans, works well today - despite serious stumbles in its early years. Through patience and perseverance, Obamacare can as well.

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Editorial | Despite stumbles, give healthcare reform time

It now is painfully clear that President Barack Obama and his administration stumbled badly in recent weeks as the Affordable Health Care Act has unfolded.